


Nominative determinism

by valadilenne



Category: Mad Men
Genre: Gen, Innuendo, puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-22
Updated: 2012-06-22
Packaged: 2017-11-08 06:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/440393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valadilenne/pseuds/valadilenne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lane and Joan are bored of emergency budget restructuring. Spoilers through late season 4.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nominative determinism

“Does it ever strike you as funny?”

Lane looks up from the projection spreadsheet engulfing his desk, flips his glasses back down onto his nose. 

“Sorry?” There’s not amusement to be had from the current state of company finances, but Mrs. Harris has this curious look upon her face, sitting back on the couch rather blithely. Having been holed up in his office for several workdays in a row trying to restructure and rein everything back in after losing so much of their business, a touch of madness wouldn’t be beyond contemplation. Maybe they could get one last billing on Lucky Strike, have psychotherapy covered.

“Your name.”

“What.” Lane has the unshakeable feeling that he’s just been caught ignoring key elements of a lecture over which there will be an exam later.

“Your name is Pryce, and you do… this,” she says. Joan gestures to the reams and reams of paper covering every available surface, which is the shameful secret he’d always been able to secrete before America; finance is supposed to be neat and orderly, but years past never involved a co-conspirator on this level of intimacy—close quarters, professionally, he thinks quickly. He wonders about her opinion of his process, even if she’s gazed into the abyss before. It's never been quite as frantic as this, very poor form for a director. “Working in prices and money, I mean.”

“Oh, ah.”

“Was it on purpose?”

“What?”

“Did you study finance?”

“I went out for business; always had a knack for smothering joy by telling people to stop _spending so much money_ ,” and Lane says that last part a bit ridiculously, stertorously, diving for a stack of expense reports before they topple cheekily to the floor, but apparently she finds this funny, because he sits back up to find her suppressing a grin behind her hand. He’s not sure if she thinks he’s joking, but a laughing Harris is certainly better than one who throws expensive prickly things at him.

And it is actually a bit funny when he thinks about it, Pryce/price, and Lane has a little half-smile on his face.

“There was a boy in high school who always made fun of my name.”

He has to think about this for a moment—high school is secondary school, so youngish Joan, adolescent. There’s nothing inherently mockable about the name _Harris_ , and he almost says that, and then remembers that this is _Mrs._ Harris, and instead just says, 

“Oh?” 

because he senses that there is a story forthcoming.

“I was _Holloway_ then, but he had an… uncouth sense of humor and would pronounce it… _Hallway_.” She tilts her head to the side and frowns. “It wasn’t like that, of course, people just thought,” Joan adds, and then looks at him, gauges his reaction. Lane does not understand why someone would find that funny, but in the pause her expression shifts into something not quite divineable, and she nods, strangely receptive to his politely quiet bafflement.

“School’s always rough,” he says to try to cover it; Joan smiles, and they resume their study of billings, a bit more relaxed.

It isn’t until he’s looking in the mirror late that night that Lane realizes what she meant, and nearly swallows his toothbrush.


End file.
